Belle's First Day
by beth830
Summary: Someone new at OCB.


I do not own the rights to Miami Vice and do not make any money off of the show. *sigh*

"Where do we stand on the Rivas investigation?" asked Lt. Castillo to the vice detectives.

"Nothing so far," replied Detective Ricardo Tubbs. "Lots of running around town into various clothing and athletic shops, but haven't seen him meet anyone or mention anything about a deal going down."

"Yeah, nada Marty," agreed Detective Sonny Crockett. "We are just soaking up the rays and wasting gas following Manny Rivas around town. I think we have seen every sneaker store in town!"

Before Lt. Castillo could respond, the door to the conference room was pushed open. The occupants of the room all turned to the intruder.

"Sorry I am late, I was waiting for the last of the print run. Stupid printer jammed and I had to do surgery on it to get the blasted thing to work again," a young lady stated as she sat an arm load of files on the table. "My apologies, Lt. Castillo."

"Who are you and why are you in my meeting?" asked Lt. Castillo stonily.

"Uhm…I am Elizabeth Belle, the new intelligence liaison. I was told to gather all info on Manny Rivas and report to this meeting today. My job is to provide deep background and intelligence."

"Deep intelligence? On a drug dealer?" sneers Crockett. "Lady, all you have to know is when the deal is and how many paddy wagons you need to haul off the players."

Unperturbed Belle looked around the table. "Commissioner Brown assigned me to act as liaison. I was informed last week that as of today I would be tasked to support the OCB. I am not sure if there was a break in the chain of communication or what."

"I will find out what is going on after this meeting. What is this?" queried Lt. Castillo as he points to the files.

The young lady starts to pass out folders to the members of the OCB. "Rivas is an interesting group. It is said the old man runs the business, but no one, and I mean NO ONE has laid eyes on him for 3 months. Even the undercover officers that have been in the Rivas compound don't have an eyewitness report of seeing Eduardo Rivas, only the son Manny Rivas. Manny acts like Moses giving the Israelites the laws of Jehovah, but….."

"So are you saying the old man is dead and Manny is pretending like he is alive?" scoffs Tubbs as he reads the file in front of him. "No one could keep that secret. If anyone got a whiff of Eduardo Rivas expiring, a war would break out over who would take over the business."

"What I am saying is that a considerable number of law enforcement officers, undercovers, snitches, and other members of the Miami social scene think that Manny cannot win a war of succession IF his father is dead. Too many other lieutenants have made their bones in the organization and have the backbone and support to fight for control. Manny played the spoiled rich brat and has very little street credibility, within the Rivas organization. Sure he is the old man's son, but you have to be able to hold onto the kingdom once you receive the keys to it. And that is NOT going to happen." Belle looked at Lt. Castillo, "If your position is weak, you make your enemies think you have a stronger position that you really do, right? How would this be any different? Make it seem like Papa is alive, tell the lieutenants what Papa wants done, then scamper off to act a pampered rich boy."

"Won't work," Crockett huffs. "Sooner or later someone in the inner circle will let slip what is going on. There can't be that many enforcers that would help cover it up, especially since it would mean their deaths when the other parties found out that they were trying to cover up Papa's death. No, they would make alliances with whichever lieutenant they thought would come out on top and line up for war."

Before Belle could respond Castillo cut in, "Gina and Trudy, how close are we to busting Zamora?"

"Gina and I have been on the Zamora streets. We have worked our way up, and Zamora has been watching us. We think he is going to take us off the streets and put us to work in his nightclub. From what we hear, if he likes the look of you, he will bring you in and place you in his hotel, nightclub, or bar."

"Trudy is right. The girls on the street told us that if you work his hotel, you wait around for a guest to want some personal service, and then you are sent to the room. If you work his nightclub, you are a waitress and if a patron likes you, they can pay for your services for the evening. The girls that work the bar are there to help relieve customers of their cares by enticing them to purchase drinks. Then they suggest a trip to the track or casino. Just a way to fleece drunken men out of their money," explained Gina.

"Ok, give it another week and let's see how it goes," instructed Castillo. "Anything else? If not, Belle, you stay here. Everyone else is dismissed."

Castillo got up and went to his office to make a phone call. Everyone else slowly exited the room. Gina and Trudy paused a moment to talk to the girl.

"So, I am Gina. I don't think I have seen you around here much."

"Hi Gina. Most people just call me Belle, mainly because it could be a first or last name. I got use to it and don't really mind. I am from Ohio and worked for the Columbus PD. My mom retired here for her health several years go, but she was diagnosed with cancer last year. I had to take a leave of absence to take care of Mom. Now that she has passed, I just couldn't return to Ohio and was able to get a position with Miami-Dade," Elizabeth explained.

"Oh that's rough!" commensurated Trudy. "I am Trudy and us girls have to stick together or else. Just to warn you, Sonny and Rico are charmers. They are really good at getting other people to do the mundane so that they can roam the streets in their cars and hang out. Watch out for them, especially the smooth talking Sonny Crockett!"

At that moment Castillo came back into the room, "ladies, I need to see Belle in my office."

Belle followed Castillo into his office, shut the door, and waited for him to say something. He looked down at his hands and didn't say anything. Belle knew this was a classic interrogation technique. The silence would drive the suspect to start talking. Usually nonsense but that nonsense would be warped around until you got the info you wanted. The kicker was whether to succumb to the temptation a normal person might have to talk; keep silent in the hopes that Castillo thinks it is manners keeping one silent; or keep silent and hope he didn't realized that Belle knew more about interrogations that one might think from a person that rode a desk compiling intelligence for different departments.

Finally Castillo looked up at Belle, "The paperwork never got to my desk stating that you were assigned to us. The commissioner apologized for the mistake and is sending over your file and copies of the paperwork right now. I am going to want to talk to you after I look at the documents. Then we will discuss how you will be of use to the OCB. You may go back to your office. I will call you when I am ready to talk to you. You are dismissed."

Belle nodded and left Castillo's office. She walked out of the OCB and went back to the office she had. It had heavy duty security locks and inside was a playground of intelligence. She had access to all sorts of interesting databases that most law enforcement organizations wouldn't know about.

But then she really wasn't Elizabeth Belle. The real Elizabeth Belle was dead.


End file.
